All My Children News & Gossip

News for the week of 28-Jan-2013

by Carol Banks Weber

Prospect Park execs sealed a distribution deal with Hulu (free), Hulu Plus (subscribers), and iTunes last week, which will enable soap fans to watch AMC and OLTL online and on various other platforms when The Online Network (TOLN) goes green this spring. This means viewers can watch on their computers, web-connected television sets, cell phones, tablets, iPod touches, and iPads.

Judging by Soaps.com’s latest interview with Prospect Park’s Jeff Kwatinetz, AMC and OLTL’s online reboot is in good hands. After the first attempt at a launch two years ago (when the ABC Daytime soaps were canceled) failed at the last minute, soap fans and soap actors assumed it was truly over. But Jeff Kwatinetz and his people kept trying to find a way to bring the canceled soaps back on the air somehow under budget and with profit in mind. They just might do it this time. AMC will shoot first, later in February, but both soaps will make it online with four, 30-minute episodes, Monday-Thursday, five minutes of commercial time, and Friday reserved for a recap and bonus interviews/footage. This set-up will enable Prospect Park to charge more for advertising. Advertising will dictate how far the soaps can go (it’s online, not on network TV) regarding salacious content. “We don't want to do anything to shock people or to do things to make a statement. The idea is to do what's best for the storytelling,” Kwatinetz said. “The advantages of being online give the actors and writers more creativity. We can't go too far because we still are advertiser based and certainly don't want to offend people. We want the storylines to be more relevant to current issues and what people are going through — though somewhat edgier and sexier at times. But it's all to service to story.”

Gossip for the week of 28-Jan-2013

by Carol Banks Weber

Prospect Park also announced early last week that deals were sealed with many favorite AMC actors and solid production execs—and that’s just for starters. A lot of the names have made the news in the past few weeks as early signs: Debbi Morgan (Angie), Vincent Irizarry (David), Darnell Williams (Jesse), Jill Larson (Opal), Thorsten Kaye (Zach), Jordi Vilasuso (Griffin), and Lindsay Hartley (Cara). In production, there’s Carole Shure, TOLN’s new executive, and Chris Savage, AMC/OLTL’s unit production manager/line producer.

As soon as soap’s news media reported the appointment of Fox McDermott to Prospect Park’s head of production, word has come through via Soap Opera Uncensored’s Nelson Branco that the guy’s out. Anyone else interested?

Since Jacob Young (ex-JR) went back to B&B to replay Rick, Prospect Park is recasting the role under the name of Logan, according to Soap Central’s Dan J Kroll, January 24. Based on the audition script, JR didn’t off himself in the soap’s September 23, 2011 finale.